Comments by pkoplin

Lev 19:33-4When an alien lives with you in your land, you shall not wrong him. The alien who lives with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.[Not valid in Arizona.]

The reason the conclusions of the Lancet paper were based on 8 trials is that those were the larger trials considered to be of higher quality. I guess you were too busy trolling the Internet for comments critical of homeopathy to notice.

Lancet. 2005 Aug 27-Sep 2;366(9487):726-32.Are the clinical effects of homoeopathy placebo effects? Comparative study of placebo-controlled trials of homoeopathy and allopathy.110 homoeopathy trials and 110 matched conventional-medicine trials were analysed. The median study size was 65 participants (range ten to 1573). 21 homoeopathy trials (19%) and nine (8%) conventional-medicine trials were of higher quality. In both groups, smaller trials and those of lower quality showed more beneficial treatment effects than larger and higher-quality trials. When the analysis was restricted to large trials of higher quality, the odds ratio was 0.88 (95% CI 0.65-1.19) for homoeopathy (eight trials) and 0.58 (0.39-0.85) for conventional medicine (six trials). INTERPRETATION: Biases are present in placebo-controlled trials of both homoeopathy and conventional medicine. When account was taken for these biases in the analysis, there was weak evidence for a specific effect of homoeopathic remedies, but strong evidence for specific effects of conventional interventions. This finding is compatible with the notion that the clinical effects of homoeopathy are placebo effects.

Claims of homeopathy's efficacy beyond the placebo effect are unsupported by the collective weight of scientific and clinical evidence.[9][10][11][12][13][14] While individual studies have positive results, systematic reviews of published trials fail to conclusively demonstrate efficacy.[15][16][17][18][19] Furthermore, higher quality trials tend to report less positive results,[17][20] and most positive studies have not been replicated or show methodological problems that prevent them from being considered unambiguous evidence of homeopathy's efficacy.[9][12][21][22] A 2010 inquiry into the evidence base for homeopathy conducted by the United Kingdom's House of Commons Science and Technology Committee concluded that homeopathy is no more effective than placebo.[14]Depending on the dilution, homeopathic remedies may not contain any pharmacologically active molecules,[23] and for such remedies to have pharmacological effect would violate fundamental principles of science.[13][24] Modern homeopaths have proposed that water has a memory that allows homeopathic preparations to work without any of the original substance; however, there are no verified observations nor scientifically plausible physical mechanisms for such a phenomenon.[24][25] The lack of convincing scientific evidence supporting homeopathy's efficacy[26] and its use of remedies lacking active ingredients have caused homeopathy to be described as pseudoscience, quackery,[27][28][29][30][31] and a "cruel deception".[32]

A hilarious quote from the linked story reporting the original sale: "Rosenson confirmed that he's not planning any drastic changes." His stupid and tone-deaf management decisions aliented so many long-time customers that he was able to destroy a community institution in less than 2 years.

Not that it's much consolation, but Kisch's bookstore wasn't destroyed by the arrival of chain book stores or the Internet, it was literally demolished, along with other local businesses, to make room for the Paseo Nuevo mall, and then given another, much smaller location where it didn't have anywhere near the space to provide the wondrous book-hunting experience previously offered by the quirky old site. It soon succumbed to the new downtown real estate realities, and another bit of local SB was lost.